Reviews
Like most men my age, I have fond memories of seeing Top Gun for the first time. It was cheesy, reeked of testosterone, and lodged in the collective consciousness of a generation. It is for this reason that I have a fondness for combat flight simulations and that Kenny Loggins track, Danger Zone. It is with this mind set that I approached Project Aces and Namco’s Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. This is the first sortie of the successful series on Microsoft’s next generation hardware and thanks to some pant wettingly luscious screen shots has also been yet another highly anticipated title in the ‘07 Christmas run up. But does it live up to the hype? And does it work with the Top Gun sound track being played in the background?
Ace Combat 6 is based in the fictitious city of Gracemeria in the country of Emmeria, which bears an uncanny resemblance to San Francisco. You play the part of an Air Force pilot in the Garuda squadron who is dealing with the invasion of his homeland by the forces from Estovakia (a name not lost on Estonians and Slovakians I’m sure) and you witness the story unfolding through the eyes of affected characters such as an air force pilots wife called Melissa, her daughter and an occupying forces senior officer. The plot is advanced through cutscenes that show the perspectives of the occupying force and the victims of the war, though it does it in a very cheesy and offhand way that somewhat trivialises the ordeal. The voice acting is woeful and this isn’t helped by an equally woeful script. The story seems to touch on aspects of war but never really explores them, like refugees for example. The emphasis is more on Melissa’s experience and concerns, which don’t seem to be anywhere near as bad as you would expect, as opposed to the misfortune of the displaced thousands. The fact that the story is told is such a deplorable way (like the young girls bile inducing description of flying planes as ‘dancing with angels’) makes it difficult to empathise or even care as all you really want to do is climb into the cockpit and get stuck in.
Using what is possibly the blandest and most uninspiring menu system seen to date on any 360 game, you can select your campaign and multiplayer missions. The campaign unfolds across 15 missions that will take about 8 to 10 hours to complete. These missions take place over large areas and have a wealth of objectives that you will simply not complete in the time frame. You will only need to get through a few objectives to complete the missions but there is significant replay value in revisiting the missions to complete the remaining objectives and unlock some goodies. The sheer size of the playable areas is hugely impressive. This is not a confined space that you are consciously aware of and that affects how you fly. It seems as if there are no restrictions on where you can go and you sometimes find yourself some way from the main fight picking off stragglers. It’s important to know where you are in relation to your other objectives and team mates. A great feature of the game is the mission replay which you get to see when you complete a mission or die during one. This is like a 3D race replay and it’s a great way to not only see what you did, but also how you can improve.
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